Graphics Cards Guide

Mainstream Bonanza

Mainstream Bonanza

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460’s unbeatable combination of performance and price means that it is the kingpin in the US$200 to US$250 price bracket. Nothing from ATI is even close to challenging it and is, quite easily, one of the best things to have come out from the green camp in a long, long time. So much so that anyone who is looking to spend US$200 on a decent graphics card cannot afford to overlook it.

We’ve already covered the GeForce GTX 460 extensively, in our full review and then in a later roundup article. And now, we are continuing our coverage of the GeForce GTX 460 with another five choice selections, this time from ECS, Gainward, Manli, MSI and Palit.

Here’s the full list of cards that we’ll be evaluating today:

ECS GTX 460 Black

Gainward GTX 460 Golden Sample GLH

MSI N460GTX Hawk

Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum

Manli GeForce GTX 460

And without further ado, let's jump straight in and introduce our the first card in our roundup.

The ECS GeForce GTX 460 Black

Much like AMG’s Black line of super souped up Mercedes-Benzes, ECS’ GeForce GTX 460 Black is the company’s pimped out and flagship GeForce GTX 460. As such, it runs at a higher core clock speed of 765MHz, a respectable 90MHz bump compared to a reference card, and also higher memory clock speeds of 3700MHz DDR, a 100MHz DDR increase from a reference card’s 3600MHz DDR. To keep the card running cool, ECS has plonked a massive twin-fan, 2.5-slot Accelero Twin Turbo Pro cooler from cooling specialists Arctic Cooling (now known simply as Arctic).